I'm hoping someone might be able to help with my prints coming out too dark. I'm not sure whether it might be a problem with my monitor calibration or with the printing process.

I am running Windows Vista and have calibrated my monitor using i1 Match 3. I acquired the full version from the Australia distributor who sold me the Lite version (which as I understand deals with colour but not luminosity) and they got me to upgrade it to the full version through i1 Diagnostics (which covers the luminosity issues) but this piece of software doesn't appear to provide a definitive message that you are running the full version (though it produces no error messages).

I've been through the process in Photoshop making the picture look like it want it on my monitor.

I have then followed all the steps in LuLa "From Camera to Print 2008" in setting up Photoshop and printer and in soft proofing it first.

I am printing on Moab Somerset Rag, using the ICC profile from Moab (for my workload, profiling the printer seems too much) on an Epson 3800, but the bottom line is that prints coming are much darker than those on the screen.

I'd appreciate your thoughts on how I might go about isolating the problem.

OK - I've had a chance to review the articles, and I've played about with the i1 on my monitor (I think I was adding to my woes by using the "easy" calibration rather than the advanced"). But I'm still not sure I am doing it right. I printed one of the test prints http://www.digitaldog.net/files/Printer_Test_file.jpg.zip from the Andrew Rodney article (which I'm guessing is you). Now the interesting thing here is that bottom right image with the hand and four balls has a background that is almost black on the print (to my eye - I am almost totally colour blind which isn't helping matters). I've recalibrated the monitor with i3 Match 3 at 120cd/m2 and achieve 104 - the background behind the hand in Photoshop is still very bright. I then set my monitor brightness down to 0 out of 100. I went through the calibration process again with a target of only 80cd/m2. I measure the ambient light 4400K. The actual achieved is only 19.2cd/m2. Pretty dark ? Well I switch back to Photoshop and the background on same picture is still much brighter on the screen than on the print !

Now the interesting thing here is that bottom right image with the hand and four balls has a background that is almost black on the print...

I'm looking at the same target on my i1Match calibrated 21" Dell and I can tell you even my Epson NX330 "All In One" printer without any special ICC profile (Let Printer Manage Color) on glossy paper will not make that 33RGB background black viewed under any light conditions.

Make a square shaped selection on the target in the area in question in Photoshop and fill it with absolute 0,0,0RGB black and see if it is distinguishable on the print from the rest of the background. If it's not, then that Moab ICC profile isn't doing a very good job in the shadow regions or you could have a setting wrong or off.

You shouldn't have to be working in the dark calibrating your display to 80 cd/m2. Check out the "Room Lighting" thread and see my setup.

Went through all the configurations again and found that I had restarted Photoshop (never overlook the obvious) - reapplying the Moab profile brings the background back to looking more sensible (a much more distinct gradation of tone). It is still dark but I think I need to sort out the lighting conditions in this room as the next step, pretty clearly it is way too dark.

I have a Dell U2410 monitor where the brightness can only be reduced to about 120c, as measured with a new Colormunki. My prints are too dark. I can get the display darker by using the brightness slider to "-40" on my Radeon 6670 series video card. Is this ok or will it otherwise mess up my profiling/print accuracy?